A Framework for Assessing Environmental and Operational Performance of New Manufacturing Process Technology

摘要

With the expansion of industrialization across the world comes a simultaneous increase in environmental impacts. Consequently, it is ever more important to develop manufacturing processes and systems that demonstrate high environmental and operational performance. The development of manufacturing technology is often driven by the possibility of improved performance for a specific characteristic, such as reduced cutting force in machining. The initial stages of operational performance improvement, however, also provide an opportunity to characterize environmental performance. Unit Process Life Cycle Inventory (UPLCI) is a recently developed method for assessing operational and environmental performance, and has been applied to mature technologies and processes. This research proposes a framework for guiding experimental design for UPLCI studies characterizing new manufacturing technologies to more effectively capture environmental impacts. The advantages and challenges of such an approach are also examined. By implementing this framework, organizations that use UPLCI data to characterize manufacturing processes will be able to better anticipate the environmental impacts that might result from integrating a new process into a manufacturing system. The incorporation of standard environmental metrics into process analysis will enable broader industrial adoption of the technology and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the process to the scientific community.